Newgeography: The Luxury City vs. the Middle ClassIf you think you noticed this during the boom times, you were most likely not mistaken. In many cities in the US, the city is reserved as the exclusive province of the unattached - those with no children or grown children - who would merely consume the fabulous bounty of consumable goods and services the city would provide. As middle class families leave cities behind, only the poor and the affluent remain.

Newgeography.com: Euroburbia: A Personal ViewEurope has sprawling suburbs too, despite what romantic urbanists may wish to believe. Social stratification is alive and well for many of the same reasons it is alive and well in America.

September 30, 2009

It’s been hard to keep from talking about the obsession (a healthy one at the moment, fine with me) that Reno has with its image at the moment.

The community seems to have overreacted incredibly negatively to the idea of the tourism slogan being “A Little West of Center” as brought forth by the agency that did a lot of good brand research for the RSCVA lately. This has been praised elsewhere and includes a new logo, which is a good logo and the concept “Reno-Tahoe USA” is a great concept as a starting point.

In fact, with just the logo and Reno-Tahoe USA, the RSCVA is positioned well to craft a range of regional marketing taglines targeted at specific visitor demographics that highlight the diverse mix of destinations and venues Western Nevada has to offer.

However, the outrage, which seems overdone on the part of many people, over (the rejected) “A Little West of Center” slogan is really unbelievable. People’s reaction: overwhelmingly “What is that supposed to mean?” is always played to paint the advocate into a corner. Mayor Bob Cashell’s quip “What do they mean, Virginia Street?” was actually funny but still I think the aversion to it comes from people naturally, in their mind, associating the phrase with its source “A little left of center”, which many leaders in and around the Reno area may be repulsed to believe anyone would think of their area.

Reno wears its relative conservatism on its sleeve a lot, which isn’t really a bad thing except when it provokes knee-jerk reactions like this.

Facts are, it’s a pretty socially liberal place, with plenty to do for drinkers, gamblers, gay people, artists, and really anyone who wishes to live in an unconventional manner. But the conservative “out west” attitude that prevails in the enjoyment of going out in the mountains and shooting at cans, or wanting to keep base costs of government services low, pervades and infuses a natural skepticism of pretty much all of the advancements and trappings of modernity even as it seeks to take advantage of those advancements.

Hey, it’s what I think of when I think “A Little West of Center” Frankly, it would have done Reno ok.

I’m happy to not be the only person writing about Reno’s twitchy attitude. Gay Rodeo of God Hates Renobusts forth with the proclamation that:

“Nope, we’re just assholes apparently. Countless people I’ve encountered that either move here or visit mention this, the tenseness, the bravado, the needing to prove… something… in this town. I mean, look at this website.”

One day I was walking across Liberty Street on Sierra headed down to California Avenue from downtown proper, and some guy in a pickup truck honked at me because I wasn’t walking fast enough! In the crosswalk! While the walk sign was lit. I like to imagine him imagining himself being associated by power of suggestion with a bunch of tree huggin’ hippies thanks to this slogan created by some San Francisco elites who misjudged his town by way of said slogan.

It did set people off, so just as well that it’s gone. What comes next is anybody’s guess. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to be the only one scratching my head on occasion when I witness things like this, and saying to myself , “What in blazes?” Perhaps one day Reno will collectively take a good deep breath and relax for a second. Until then we observers will have plenty to marvel at.

September 13, 2009

The Reno Redevelopment Agency is broke. After having committed the City of Reno to a million dollars a year more in subsidies to the developers of the baseball stadium in Reno for the next decade, they have essentially run themselves out of the ability to take on anymore projects from a reliable funding source, ie, taxes that are levied as per the special Redevelopment District.

That’s sad, as we’re coming to learn, because there are a lot of projects that are on the table right now – and which may have to be dropped if someone can’t get real creative, real fast.

Perhaps one of the most important of such projects is the Facade Improvement Program, which was to focus on improving facades along a couple blocks worth (give or take) of Virginia Street frontage. Mike at Reno Realty Blog calls the street NVA in reference to North Virginia, with SVA being the opposite direction, a method of identifying the street this blog heartily endorses.

The approach that was taken was that the RDA would take on the project as a demonstration project, doing about a half million dollars’ worth of work, to improve one of the worst spots in downtown – what I call the “Center Block” – the west side of NVA between 2nd and Commercial Row. This blighted block has much former casino facade, papered over as liquor store and pawn shop facade. Today it’s worse still. There’s casino facade papered over as liquor store facade papered over as a bakery (granted the bakery just opened, and let’s all go and try some of this dude’s bread, post haste, and regularly I might add if he’s any good.)

This post started out being somewhat about the money the RDA doesn’t have, which is funny, because money the RDA could spend, if it keeps a few RDA employees, is all over the place – if they get smart about raising it. In particular the facade plan, which seems to be in limbo at the moment – recommended for reprioritization, could take advantage of CBDG funds. If it’s not the same thing, the property owners and small businesses inhabiting those properties could also qualify for SBA loans to secure financing for their individual storefronts.

This is where the RDA could shine. As a junction point between private VC, public bond and “A” loans, foundation money, and spillover tax revenue; and entrepreneurs, business owners and building and property owners in target districts.

One thing that’s been missing all along – a methodical, programmatic approach, is just one thing. Another thing is the lack of foresight with the allocation of funding resources to projects. Projects sit in the imagination of some plan or official for 25 years or more, and it’s frequently an emergency, or some stroke of luck which allows them to proceed. It’s not just the RDA that takes this approach. A few years ago some friends sold their house to escape an assessment district on their place to replace the sidewalks and resurface the streets in their neighborhood that would raise the property tax for the year by a considerable amount. The question most naturally springing to mind was, “Why wasn’t the City trickling this money into a fund over the past 20 years.”

It’s the same with so many projects, blighted properties, and missed opportunities in Reno today and over the years. This is one reason to celebrate that Reno is now committed to truly subsidizing the baseball project, the second phase of which is due to begin construction, the developers tell us, any day now.

September 11, 2009

In a long-anticipated development, Corus Bancshares, which owns several severely distressed condominium developments nationwide including Reno’s excellent Montage project, has been seized by federal regulators.

Bank seizures have a habit of occurring after close of news cycle on a Friday. Speculation has been rampant regarding the fate of the company’s projects, which sit largely abandoned in housing markets once thought to be red hot, in states like Florida and Nevada.

Reno will be likely impacted by whatever becomes of the company. The Montage project has failed to fill many units. Housing built during the bubble of the first decade of the twenty-first century was terribly overpriced. The building until now has continued to be managed by its principal developer, Fernando Leal, who according to some accounts has continued to work aggressively to fill the building.

It will be interesting to see which entity owns up in possession of Corus’ troubled assets.